With 100% English Ancestry, I thought it might be really difficult to trace my ancestors back in England from Canada. Only my mother, her father and his mother were born in Canada. This Blog will talk about researching my English ancestors from Canada but also the ancestors of our son in law whose families stretch back far into Colonial French Canada. My one name study of Blake and of Pincombe also dominate my blog these days.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Guild of One Name Studies

The Blake one name study is now my primary study at the Guild of one name studies. It will involve most of my effort in genealogy as well. At the moment I am engaged in collecting the data on the Blake family that centered at Andover Hampshire from the late 1400s and continue in this area to this day. I wish I had contacts with this section of the Blake family but I am probably much too shy to just write people out of the telephone book although it is tempting. Probably though all the Blakes in this area are not descended from the Mr. Blake and Jone Blake family mentioned in the will of Jone Blake in 1527 - sons Robert and Nicholas and daughter Elizabeth married to Mr. Mylne. Jone does not mention her grandchildren and she would have had quite a number by the time of her death so perhaps that is why. I suspect her age to have been in the vicinity of 60 years plus or minus 5 years. The age of her son Nicholas is not known either when he leaves his will in 1547 nor his brother Robert who leave a will in 1542. Semi-accurate aging comes in partially with the next to following generation. Then the next generation born/baptized after the beginning of the Parish Registers at Andover is better known in that regard.

I also worked at updating my Pincombe and Lambden profiles. The Lambden study though is in resting mode. I pull items when I find them but if another researcher comes along and wishes to do the Lambden study then it is available. I am tempted to add that to the profile and may do so just to make it perfectly plain for all to see. The Pincombe study interests me but is a relatively small study and I continue to collect data.

I shall put together the Blake Profile for the approval of my two other authors when I receive the link. The masses of the textual material has been created by Barrie Blake of Australia and he has done a most fascinating job. It is his webpage that the Blake study is linked to from the main page with a more complete explanation in the profile to come. The DNA workup has also been completed by him and he continues this important work. It is hoped that having a one name study might encourage people to test their Blake yDNA line or if already tested to join the project.

Continuing with the Upper Clatford Parish Registers I have reached 1444 baptisms by the end of 1787, 243 marriages to 1753 and 963 burials to 1776. I will work my way up to 1812 for baptisms, marriages and burials before then turning to Abbotts Ann. At Abbotts Ann I have the Coleman family and the Pearce family to work through for my own direct line but I am also quite interested in the Blake line there to simply sort out whether this is the Robert Blake line from Andover as I strongly suspect. The Pearce family may be from Collingbourne Kingston one generation back where William Pearce married Elizabeth Habgood 25 Apr 1736 at Collingbourne Kingston. Interestingly enough the father of Elizabeth Habgood was Thomas Habgood who married Anne Farmer in 1705 at Collingbourne Kingston. The Farmer line is interesting because Ann Farmer (daughter of Isaac Farmer and Elizabeth Lambden) married John Blake (my 2x great grandparents) at Andover 4 Sep 1823. Ann was born 19 Apr 1804 at Little London and baptized 11 May 1804 at Andover. Her father is a mystery. He signs the marriage register with a well shaped hand as does the father of Elizabeth Lambden. But I am somewhat stumped with both of these families and finding an Isaac Farmer baptized 6 May 1764 at Collingbourne Kingston has certainly proven to be an interesting possibility for my 3x great grandfather. One of my next purchases of fiche will be Collingbourne Kingston.